Vibrating brushes for human personal care are well known and are used where the vibration is intended to enhance brushing, cleaning or massaging effects. Vibrating hair brushes are also well known wherein a vibratory movement is applied to the bristles for an enhanced brushing or combing effect, and is usually also intended for a massaging effect to the scalp of the brushing user. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,517,235 to Flowers et al., oppositely driven reciprocating hair brush units are intended to provide a brushing and massaging action whereby twisted hair is effectively unsnarled as the user traverses the hair with the brush. The brush disclosed herein is purported to provide improved efficiency in operation by effecting the counter-reciprocation of a pair of bristle units wherein the oppositely moving units are intended to effectively pull twisted hair apart as the brushing operation is performed. Unfortunately, such a reciprocating action has been found not to be as advantageous to a detangling operation due to its tendency to damage hair due to the shearing action of the simultaneously reciprocating bristle action.
Other vibrating brush embodiments generally include a singular brush wherein the bristles all move in common, but also include a vibratory movement having a component intended to move towards and away from the user's scalp to apply a beating and massaging action to the scalp. Over time, a beating motion to the scalp can become unpleasant to the user and provides only a limited effect in the actual detangling of the hair, having primarily a massaging purpose.
Yet another problem with most prior vibrating hair brush devices is the communication of the vibrations through the handle to the hand of the user. The hand can function as a substantial dampening force on the vibratory movement, thereby reducing its effectiveness, and also, over time, the absorption of the vibrations by the hand can become uncomfortable and unpleasant to the user. U.S. Pat. No. 2,465,250 discloses soft cushions 7, 11 in a vibratory hair brush providing a floating support for edges of a brush plate but are limited in their usefulness due to their structural position relative to the vibrating actuator and the bristles, and thus, also in purposeful translation of the actuator vibrations to a desired bristle movement.
Accordingly, there is a need for a vibrating hair brush for improved detangling of curled or twisted or knotted hair which operates in a selected plane for improved effectiveness in the detangling with minimum hair damage and which is comfortable to both a user's hand and scalp during operation.